


These Many Threads

by FHC_Lynn



Series: Broken Windows [5]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Family Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 14:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8375386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FHC_Lynn/pseuds/FHC_Lynn
Summary: Soundwave asks Ratchet for a terrible favor.





	1. Expectancy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> G1. Spark play implied. Mechpreg, if you wanna look at it that way.
> 
> Written for the Dreamwidth [ tf_rare_pairing community](http://tf-rare-pairing.dreamwidth.org/) for the prompt: Ratchet/Soundwave: bad ideas

"You have got to be kidding me."

Looking up as the Autobot's medic approached, Soundwave studied his guest from behind his visor. He understood the other's incredulity. Ratchet's reputation spoke of a caustic, no-nonsense approach to his work. Even Lord Megatron kept a wary caution about the mech. Here in the wasteland of destroyed landscape around the outskirts of Iacon, he had hoped the medic would believe him.

Betrayal would still kill him. Slow and painful, but the medic _should_ be the safest person on Cybertron for his purpose right now. "Humor is pointless. Assistance required."

"So Laserbeak's message said. You do know if they'd caught him, he'd have been fried. Could your spark have taken the hit?" Ratchet stalked closer, inspecting Soundwave right back. The medic waved a hand, encompassing their clandestine meeting in a vague gesture. "What's all this about? We chose sides, mech."

Soundwave turned back to the jumble of metal he knelt beside. He pulled the feline body closer to the weak light of his lantern.

"You have those wannabe doctors--"

"Insufficient," Soundwave interrupted. "Larger output required."

"What in Primus' name are you on about? Don't you dare tell me you called me out here for a greyed--" Ratchet began, rumbling in the beginning of outrage. The small body bore dark colors, including grey, but it had never been alive. Ratchet stared down at it, realization spreading across his features. Then lifted his uncomprehending gaze to Soundwave. "Wait, that isn't greyed. Explain. Now."

"Assistance required. Partition begun before war," Soundwave answered. He stroked the feline body. The tiny chamber within its chest lay open. Waiting. "Larger output required to achieve full separation."

Ratchet's optics jumped from him to the small body and back up again, widening. "You've been undergoing partitioning? This whole time? But I thought-- He is rationing you."

"Necessary. Failure to complete is undesirable."

"You're overdue to complete. I can't get enought energon into you--"

"Larger output required," Soundwave interrupted.

"What?" The medic's flat voice told Soundwave that he understood exactly what Soundwave asked now. He waited, watching Ratchet closely. "You want me to merge with you. To cause the final split with the surge from overload."

Soundwave stroked the body again. "Partition begun before war. Process must be completed. Failure will cause rupture."

"Soundwave, old friend, this is the worst idea you've ever had," Ratchet said, exasperated. The medic stalked closer and crouched by the body with Soundwave. "This is a terrible thing to ask me. I thought you were crazy just asking me out here, but this? Your processor is fried."

"Assistance required," Soundwave repeated, more than a little afraid. He lifted a hand, but he checked himself before touching Ratchet. He might have asked Shockwave. He might have asked Megatron. He called neither _friend_ , but once he had called Ratchet that.

"I know you need it. But this is... You chose them. And you want me to..."

Soundwave caught Ratchet's hand as the medic reached for the body. "Please. Process must be completed. No one... No one else is safe."

Ratchet stared at Soundwave, then he looked down at the small body in front of them, waiting to live.


	2. Threads Of Resonance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: gorey imagery?  
> Notes: Written for the [Dreamwidth tf_rare_pairing community](http://tf-rare-pairing.dreamwidth.org/)’s Fall 2016 Challenge

Ravage glared into the rising smoke over the battlefield. Over the commlink, Soundwave repeated the call to regroup, but Ravage continued threading a path through smoldering husks and debris. An echo, the faintest remnant of a harmonic pulse, lured him toward it.

He found the mech in a bombed out hole hitched up against the greyed body of another. Medic markings stood out on his shoulders. The dingy white and red armor on his right peeled under the burns and buckling to his left side. The same blast that had taken his friend would take him soon, too. He scented the vital fluids leaking from a breached crystal. Ravage knew fatal wounds.

“I didn’t think...I’d meet you,” the mech whispered. One optic came online. The other flickered erratically.

“I don’t know you,” Ravage said. Selecting his path down splintered girders and paneling, he kept his gaze on the dying mech.

“Don’t suppose...you’d remember.” The mech shut his optics off, and Ravage heard his ventilation system rattle. “Don’t… Don’t tell Soundwave. That you saw me. Just… Just make him sad.”

Dropping the final distance to the floor, Ravage paused. He tilted his head right, then left and considered the half burned face of Primus on the mech’s lower chest. He could feel the mech’s resonance falling out of rhythm now. The dying mech had hours left still, if Ravage were any judge. But here, buried in the fading pulse, was a counterpoint to his own life.

“You know me,” Ravage muttered.

“Not...exactly? You were just… Just onlining. Had to run. Couldn’t be found there.” The good optic powered on again. “Soundw-wave couldn’t finish you. Not without help.”

Ravage pinned his audials back, glaring at the medic. He knew the bare details of his creation. That Soundwave had needed help to give their dividing sparks the energy and material to finish. He had known, intellectually, that a merge with a stranger had left its mark on his life.

The resonance faded. Ravage lowered his head. He spread his digits in the gritty dust as he crouched. Soundwave pinged him privately now. Ravage hadn’t known the marks had come from their enemy.

“Why did you help him?” Ravage demanded.

“‘Cause he was my friend.” The whisper faded, and his optic shut off.

Ravage knew true death wouldn’t claim the mech for hours yet. The mortal injuries had simply claimed consciousness. He looked down at his splayed hands and feet. Soundwave had taught them all how basic field repair. He insisted they be able to save each other or themselves out here where Unicron walked in the shadows.

He could help the mech. The enemy.

_...make him sad…_

Ravage stood up.


End file.
